Apple Inc’s $450 Mn E-book Settlement Gets Final Court Approval

The $400 mn from Apple comes on top of earlier settlements with 5 publishers in the case, which provided $166 million for e-book purchasers.

Apple’s visits to courts are not usually just limited to the Samsung rivalries and recently it had been engrossed with claims which said that Apple had been causing harm to the consumers by conspiring with five publishers to raise e-book prices. However, this seems to have been put to rest now as a US judge has ruled that Apple would be able to pay an amount of $450 million to resolve these claims. The ruling, given by U.S. District Judge Denise Cote, came under the hearing in Manhattan in which approval was given to what the judge referred to as a “highly unusual” accord.

According to the approval of the court, Apple will be paying a sum of $400 million to approximately 23 million consumers in case it fails in appealing a ruling that found it liable for antitrust violations. This huge amount has come on top of earlier settlements with five publishers in the case, which provided $166 million for e-book purchasers. The settlement was agreed to by Apple back in June prior to a damages trial which was set for two months later in which attorneys general in 33 states and territories and lawyers for a class of consumers were expected to seek up to $840 million.

At the time of the Manhattan hearing on Friday, Judge Cote said that it was an “unusually structured settlement, especially for one arrived at on the eve of trial.” If this deal comes to its closure it would mean that Apple would be allowed to continue to appeal Cote’s July 2013 ruling that Apple had violated antitrust laws by colluding with the publishers to drive up e-book prices and impede rivals such as Amazon.com Inc. In this accord, Apple is to pay $400 million to consumers in addition to $50 million which is to be paid to lawyers in the event that Cote’s findings are upheld on appeal. And if the appeal is settled in favor of Apple, then the company can walk away without making any payments.

However, things also majorly depend on the appeals court; in case it overturns Cote and returns the case to her, perhaps for a new trial, Apple would owe $50 million to consumers and $20 million to lawyers. The deal might be unusual to begin with but Cote knows exactly why the plaintiffs have decided to go with it and the reasonability can certainly be owed to the delay tactics very creatively put in place by Apple.